DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, Office of Foreign Assets Control

Final rule.

Effective February 10, 2017.

31 CFR Part 50

Summary

The Department of the Treasury (“Department” or “Treasury”) publishes this final rule to adjust its civil monetary penalties (“CMPs”) for inflation as mandated by the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990, as amended by the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015 (collectively referred to herein as “the Act”). This rule adjusts CMPs within the jurisdiction of certain components of the Department to the maximum amount required by the Act.

The Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is issuing this interim final rule to amend its regulations for the relevant sanctions programs it administers to implement the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990, as amended by the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996 and the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015. In particular, this rule adjusts for inflation the maximum amount of the civil monetary penalties that may be assessed under relevant OFAC regulations, including by making conforming changes to OFAC's “Economic Sanctions Enforcement Guidelines.”

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury is amending the Global Terrorism Sanctions Regulations and the Terrorism Sanctions Regulations (the “TSR”) to clarify the scope of prohibitions on the making of donations contained in the underlying Executive orders and that a person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to those programs has an interest in all property and interests in property of an entity in which it owns, directly or indirectly, a 50 percent or greater interest. In addition, OFAC is amending the TSR to add a definition of the term “financial, material, or technological support” and to set at 180 days the maximum term of maturity for instruments in which funds may be invested or held within a blocked interest-bearing account. Finally, OFAC is correcting a clerical error within the Foreign Terrorist Organizations Sanctions Regulations.